At this year's San Diego Comic-Con 2011, ThunderCats were unleashed onto the hordes of fans in the form of the latest animated series premiere, and an exclusive figure from Bandai America's ThunderCats Classic line. The figure was available at the Entertainment Earth booth and was even able to be signed by the original voice actor for Lion-O, Larry Kenney. That opportunity was too good to pass up, so we here at MTV Geek got one signed, and then proceeded to tear it open for a review... because that's just how we do things! Welcome to our convention-based review of the convention-exclusive ThunderCats Classics Lion-O figure!

The toy came trapped packaged in a window-less box that features an understated ThunderCats logo along with the name of the figure. It's a fairly plain package that hides the enormous pile of awesome hidden within its cardboard walls. However, the box coloring makes a nice platform for the sweet, silver inked autograph of Lion-O's former voice-box. Forget all that, let's get this toy open!

When it comes to the sculpt, being the first figure released in the line means that Lion-O is also a 100% new sculpt. HELL and YES! The look of the figure definitely harkens back to the original animation and, of course, the vintage toy. All of the proper details of the classic look are present, from his flowing mane to the studs around the buckle of his enormous belt buckle. the sculpt is sharp and the muscular details are cut deep into the figure and cannot be missed even if they weren't painted.

The paint applications are both wonderful and not-so-wonderful at the same time. The special metallic color scheme used for lion-O's tunic, belt, swords, and Claw Shield is a fantastic choice
for this exclusive edition. His face applications, including his eyes are also applied cleanly and help to bring out the character we remember from our childhood. However, there are a couple of problems that once seen, cannot be unseen... and we didn't even require "Sight Beyond Sight". First up are the hinges used in the wrists and ankles. While they work wondrously, they are also orange. Orange doesn't quite mask itself when the areas need to be yellow for the wrists and blue for the boots. Also, the paintwash used on the skin, while adding depth to the paint work, also has ended up haphazardly placed throughout the figure. It's as if Lion-o has lubed up with generous amounts of bronzer before a big bodybuilding competition... and that's kinda gross. Overall though, he scores a paint job that cuts down on the prototype's shininess that we noticed at Toy Fair.

When it comes to articulation, Lion-O shreds his "Masterful" competition. The King of the ThunderCats features, a ball-jointed head, hinged neck, swivel/hinge shoulders, hinged elbows, swivel/hinge wrists, hinged torso, ball-joint waist, swivel/hinge hips, swivel thighs, double-hinged knees, swivel boot tops, and dual-swivel "rocker" ankles. All of Lion-O's joints move like a dream and there is no problem with looseness whatsoever. The number of joints also allow for the figure to be posed in just about
any position we can imagine, including holding the Sword of Omens with both hands.

Lion-O is packaged with a number of great accessories.He comes with the Sword of Omens in both short and long versions, the Claw Shield, an extra right hand, an attachment piece to holster the Claw Shield to his hip, and a stand on which to display all of the weapons at once. All of the accessories are well done and the Comic-Con version of the swords is amazing. They have a vac-metalized finish which gives them a chrome appearance. The Claw Shield is also painted in a metallic gold finish compared to the flatter version that will be available with the regular
release.

Bandai America has proven that they are going to be a force to be reckoned with when it comes to their various ThunderCats offerings, and this figure is the first of many to come. while this is the San Diego Comic-Con edition, it was also available on Toys "R" Us' official website...and aftermarket auction sites everywhere. The regular edition of the Classic Lion-o will be released soon, along with Tigra as the first wave.

Stay tuned to MTV Geek! for all your ThunderCats and continuing SDCC coverage!